Saturday, December 25, 2010

Many a times am asked what are the basic SEO tactics to know and keep in mind. Well if one starts to explain this then the list can be a little overwhelming. However to keep matters a little simple I would suggest the below so as to be a little more effective:

Key Word Research And Optimization:
Before going into any detail you would first require to do a proper keyword research. Key words are the search words that your target audience would be keying into search sites say for instance Google. The key word research would be done in two parts. At first level you need to check on what does your target audience search. The second part you need to check out on is what keywords do your competitors optimist. Usually the two would be more or less similar however it is good to check out. Post your findings you then need to decide on which key words you will emphasis on and optimize. These would be in tandem with the brand personality and image that you may already have or you may want to create. You will need to be clear on what is the brand philosophy because without this you will not be able to be in-sync with the rest of the brand - customer perception.

On-Page Content Keyword Optimization:
Once you have frozen on your key words you need to then make it a conscious effort to utilize the same words. This is known as key word density. However it does not mean that you use the words so often that the reader has no other words to look at. Too much of density makes search spiders also suspicious and they may choose to not follow your page. The algorithms in the search engines are very much tuned to such spams. They can detect such things and can almost ban your page as a matter of speaking. Hence you do use the words but in a creative manner.

File Name:
While working at server level you will have many files to upload and save. This could be either for dynamic data or static information. The search engine scans through these as well. Do not name files as file1, file2 and so on. Instead use this space as your key holder. Have the correct File name that the pages within suggest.

META Keyword And META Description Tag:
When you edit HTML you will notice that you have spaces for Meta words. Use these appropriately. These are important for search engines. They understand the programme language and you can use these to the fullest.

Page Title And H1 Headline:
I would encourage you to be creative. However do not be so creative that the keywords are missing from your titles, headlines and sub heads.

Image Alt Tag:
Many a times I have noticed that while saving the images we do not mention the proper names instead we call them image1, image2 and so on. A very important fact is that you are missing out on great amount of search spider attraction material.

Link Building:
This is another important aspect of SEO [Search Engine Optimization]. While working it is imperative to have a Link Strategy in mind as well. Links direct and guide the search engine crawlers towards your main page / blog / site. Links work as arrow indicators on highway for the speeding spiders and crawlers. This does not mean that you start to have link packages and get into some aggressive link farming trap. The moment we get into this zone the algorithms at search engine start to flag this as they recognize spamming actions. Additionally you need to be careful on the part from where the links come to your page / site / blog. It is good if they come from a high traffic page. At the same time that page should not have too many links or else again the danger of neutralizing the effect comes in. Allow me to explain: Let's consider two options. Let's call two pages as 'Page A' and 'Page B' respectively. Page A has high value traffic and too many links. While Page has good traffic not as high as Page A but is healthy traffic and has less than 20 links. When you will submit you link to both Page A and Page B you will notice that the search engine considers the trust value as equal. The reason being that too many links cause the search engine to start looking at spam information. Hence Link farms etc get into negative count. Add to this your link should be supported by proper copy matter and keywords that point towards your link. There are many more factors to consider before jumping into the back-link strategy.

While I have shared this there is lots more to search engine optimization from back end or tech part as well. When you practice the above pointers remember that they work for your website, blogs and Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on. Yes, these days when search engines are getting inroads into Social Media sites as well then why should you miss out on a great opportunity?